Why Smart Entrepreneurs Are Swiping 'Right' on Recruiting Apps

Apps aren’t just for finding the Mr. and Ms. Rights of the dating world anymore. Employers are increasingly turning to recruiting apps to find candidates who are solid company matches.

Recruitment apps present information about available candidates to recruiters. They also present open positions to prospects. Thus, these apps help candidates and employers find one other. With the market for corporate recruiting software topping $1.5 billion, and with 65 percent of applicants looking for jobs on mobile devices, the future looks bright for these apps.

Why recruitment apps work

These apps make the process quicker and easier for recruiters, allowing for exploration of larger, more varied talent pools.

Recruiting apps also allow companies to bypass the middlemen and headhunters to talk to interested candidates directly. Even better, apps don’t require appointments; both recruiters and applicants can access information at any time, in any place.

In addition to the efficiency factor, apps can identify quality candidates better than traditional hiring methods. Recruiting platform HireVue claims its recruiting platform has landed 13 percent more top performers and 17 percent fewer poor performers -- all while decreasing turnover by 29 percent.

How to get involved

As companies fight to control the emerging market, they’re taking different approaches to their apps. Luckily for aspiring entrepreneurs, nobody has developed the next LinkedIn of the recruiting app world.

For entrepreneurs, here are some steps to tackling this emerging market:

1. Understand the process.

It’s not enough to be able to program an app. Developers need to learn everything they can about both sides of the hiring process to create apps that are useful and intuitive for both parties.

Recruiters and job seekers alike know how important networking is to a successful job search. Recruiting app LunchMeet enables recruiters and candidates to reach out to one another by matching up people in the same geographic area who are available for lunch, coffee or drinks.

2. Make a memorable interface.

People prefer simple, catchy interfaces. Adapting successful, people-to-people strategies can help tap into consumers’ preferences.

Switch, a relatively new app, has gained popularity by emulating the well-known dating app Tinder. Using Switch, recruiters and candidates can swipe right (like) or left (dislike). If both parties swipe right for the other, each receives an email to spark communication.

3. Learn who’s hiring whom.

Don’t be afraid to tackle a niche market. Right now, STEM positions are growing at enormous rates. Apps to match STEM graduates with employers looking for them would address the current market need.

As mentioned, HireVue is an app making waves. It allows candidates to submit pseudo-interview videos to answer questions posed by recruiters. Recruiters can use these questions to test candidates’ knowledge in specialized areas. The app touts its ability to help recruiters learn more about candidates than they could through resumes alone while helping candidates showcase their personalities.

4. Embrace multimedia.

Nobody wants to scroll through resumes on the Internet all day. The next big recruiting app will move beyond the traditional text-on-a-page approach. To create a recruiting app for the modern era, give users the ability to add video, photos and music to their profiles.

InstaJob allows employers to create customized recruitment advertisements from photographs to post on social media. This creative app targets employers and managers seeking new ways to attract quality candidates and has been dubbed the “ Instagram for employers."

Build a blockbuster.

While recruiting apps recently have made great strides, the winner in this market will be an entrepreneur who devises an app to engage passive candidates. Recruiting apps work wonderfully when both recruiters and employers are actively looking, but a LinkedIn study found that 85 percent of people are passively interested in new opportunities. When an app comes along that can connect these window shoppers to the right jobs, that app will emerge as a clear winner.

While the search for talent will never cease, that doesn’t mean it won’t change. Recruiting apps are booming, and they aren’t about to go away. “Swipe right” on the opportunity to build a winning app, and you just might become the industry’s winning candidate.